o
contend that virtue is in itself a sufficient reward, but there is
certainly a second possible reading, and this reading La Mothe found
true. No one said what a fine fellow he was, no one stared in
admiration of his promptitude or in awe of his courage. Amboise was
cold, chillingly cold.

Hugues, perhaps, was an exception, and if Villon was right Ursula de
Vesc had also been deeply moved. But that, La Mothe told himself as he
wandered disconsolately through the dull and gloomy corridors of the
Chateau, might have been nothing more than the transitory emotion of an
excited girl moved to an expression repented of when the mood cooled.

So, as lovers have done ever since this hoar world was young, he gave
himself up to melancholy and found, as more than lovers have found, a
satisfaction in a grievance. Then, while he fumed, three half-grown
spaniel puppies, followed more sedately by a full-grown brother, came
scampering around a corner, and the lover remembered he was a sportsman
who loved dogs as well as little Charles himself. It was almost the
sole hereditary trait in the lad, and the passion for animals was as
strong in the Dauphin as it was in the King.

Round the corner, full cry, they raced, slipped upon the smooth flags,
tumbled, rolled over, and with a common impulse fell upon one another
as puppies will in the sheer joy of living. But the elder dog, if he
still had the heart of eighteen or younger, did not forget he was
twenty-four with responsibilities and a dignity to maintain. Passing
gravely by the riot of paws and flapping ears he halted a yard away
from La Mothe, pushed out a sensitive, twitching nose, sniffed the hand
held out in greeting and as gravely licked it. Love at first sight is
not confined to humanity, and thanks to the unfailing miracle of
instinct the dog makes fewer mistakes than man. Inside of two minutes
he had adopted La Mothe into the very select circle of his friends.

"I have heard of you," said La Mothe, pulling the soft ears gently.
"You sleep in the Dauphin's room o' nights as Hugues does at the door,
and now and then you lay your head on her knee, while she strokes and
pets you, lucky dog that you are. Why was I not born a dog, tell me
that?"

At the sound of his voice the puppies ceased their play, sat up panting
a moment, and then in a tumultuous bunch rushed upon La Mothe.
Charlemagne vouched for him, Charlemagne who was their oracle as
grown-up brothers so often